The invention relates to an improvement of an article holder having an article holding member for holding an article assembled on an inner surface of a lid attached to a case, wherein the lid moves from a stand-up position to a flat-down position.
Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 11-151968 discloses a small article holder, i.e. article holding device, including a holding plate, i.e. article holding member. A lower edge portion of the holding plate is rotatably connected to a side edge on an inner surface portion of a receiving plate, i.e. lid, provided to be rotatable from its stand-up position to its flat-down position, and an upper edge portion of the holding plate is supported between a pair of holding arms rotatably connected to an inner wall portion for forming an opening of a console box which is closed by the receiving plate.
However, in such a conventional device, as the receiving plate is rotated from the stand-up position to the flat-down position, the holding plate is simply moved out horizontally from an inside of the console box, so that a forward edge of the holding plate horizontally moved is not greatly separated from a vertical outer wall surface of the console box. Therefore, in case such conventional article holder is provided on a side of a console lid closing an upper opening of the console box, when the console lid starts opening, a base portion on a rotatably assembled side of the console lid is liable to interfere with an article held by the holding plate.
Also, since the holding plate is disposed between the pair of the holding arms, upper portions of the holding arms are inevitably positioned on both sides of the holding plate, so that the upper portions of the thus positioned holding arms hinder the article from being held on the holding plate.
In order to obviate the defects of the conventional article holder, an object of the present invention is to provide an article holder, wherein as a lid of a case is rotated toward its flat-down position, an article holding member disposed on an inner side of the lid is moved and separated from a subject (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cassembling subjectxe2x80x9d) where the case is attached, so that an article can be easily and properly held by the article holding member.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
In order to attain the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, an article holder includes: (1) a case to be assembled or incorporated into a subject such that an opening of the case is positioned in a vertical direction; (2) a lid assembled to the case to be rotatable from a stand-up position for closing the opening of the case to a flat-down position for opening the opening of the same; (3) an article holding member to be disposed on the inner surface side of the lid by a lift arm rotatably assembled to the inner surface of the lid; and (4) a linking mechanism for rotating the lift arm to separate the article holding member from the inner surface of the lid and to transfer the same in front of the opening of the case as the lid is rotated to the flat-down position.
According to the structure as described above, as the lid is rotated from the stand-up position for closing the opening of the case to the flat-down position, the article supporting member can be separated from the lid by the lift arm, and at the same time, the article holding member as a whole can be transferred in a direction away from a rotatably assembled position of the lid and the case, i.e. in the direction of the front side of the opening of the case.
More specifically, as the lid is rotated from the standup position to the flat-down position, when one edge portion of the lift arm is pulled in a direction approaching the rotatably assembled position of the lid and the case, the article holding member close to the lid at the stand-up position can be gradually separated from the lid as the lid approaches the flat-down position and moved in front of the opening of the case.
Also, when the one edge portion of the lift arm is pushed in a direction away from the rotatably assembled position of the case and the lid as the lid is rotated from its flat-down position to its stand-up position, the article holding member positioned away from the lid at the flat-down position is gradually approaching the lid as the lid approaches its stand-up position. The article holding member can be transferred toward the opening of the case, and is moved to a lower side of the case so that a forward edge of the article holding member moved in front of the opening at the flat-down position is moved to the lower side of the case not to prevent the article holding member from being housed in the case.
As a result, first, the article holding member is positioned and supported over the lid in a state where the article holding member is separated from the assembling subject. Thus, an article can be supported in a state where a space between the assembling subject and the article held on the article holding member or the article positioned on the lid with support of the article holding member at its side portions, is widened.
Second, the article can be held in a state where the space between the lid and the article holding member is widened.
Third, in the stand-up state of the lid, a space between the lid and the case is shortened, so that the article holding member can be housed in the case with a minimum housing space, i.e. main depth of the case.
Fourth, since the article holding member can be held over the lid by the lift arm at a back surface of the article holding member, there are no parts for preventing support of the article in a holding space over the article holding member.
Also, according to a second aspect of the invention, the linking mechanism in the article holder of the first aspect is formed of: (1) a slider rotatably connected to an edge portion opposite to the edge portion of the lift arm assembled to the article holding member at a front edge thereof located on the forward edge side of the lid, and assembled to the lid to be movable toward the rotatably assembled side with the case from the forward edge side of the lid; and (2) a linking arm, one end of which is rotatably assembled to the case and the other end of which is rotatably assembled to a rear edge of the slider. The linking arm allows the slider to move away from the forward end side of the lid as the lid is rotated to the flat-down position.
According to the structure as described above, through rotation of the lid from its stand-up position to its flat-down position, the slider can be slidably moved in a direction approaching the rotatably assembled position of the lid by the linking arm for moving the rotatably assembled position with the slider downward around the rotatably assembled position with the case. The lift arm can be rotated through the movement of the slider so that the end portion of the lift arm assembled to the article holding member and the opposite end portion thereto are pulled to move in a direction separating the article holding member from the lid.
Also, when the lid in the flat-down position is rotated to the stand-up position, by the linking arm for moving the rotatably assembled position with the slider upward around the rotatably assembled position with the case, the slider can be slidably moved in the direction separated from the rotatably assembled position with the lid. Through the movement of the slider, the lift arm can be rotated so that the end portion opposite to the end portion assembled to the article holding member of the lift arm is pushed to move in a direction allowing the article holding member to approach the lid.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the lift arm in the article holder according to the second aspect of the invention is structured such that: (1) the lift arm is formed in a curved or bent state so that a rotatably assembled side of the lid with respect to the case becomes a curved inner side and a curved position is rotatably connected to the lid; and (2) a stroke or length between the curved position and the rotatably assembled position with the article holding member of the lift arm is longer than that between the curved position and the rotatably assembled position with the slider.
According to the structure as described above, even if a moving quantity of the slider is small, an edge side of the lift arm assembled to the article holding member can be greatly moved, so that while limiting the moving quantity of the slider by the linking arm to the minimum, the article holding member can be effectively moved in a direction away from the lid and in front of the opening of the case.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the article holding member of the article holder according to the first aspect includes a holding portion for holding a beverage container in a stand-up state at its side.
According to the structure as described above, the beverage container, a bottom of which is positioned on an inner surface portion of the lid to stand up thereon, can be held on a side of the assembling subject to keep the stand-up state by the holding portion of the article holding member.